130 SALMON FLIES 



of material has to be tied in at this point the 

 proportion of shank left bare has to be greater 

 relatively than where the winging is light, the 

 two extremes being the Jock Scott on the one 

 hand, and any sort of grub on the other. 

 A small, neat head, as I have already re- 

 marked on more than one occasion, is a hall- 

 mark of high-class work ; but this must not, 

 as not uncommonly happens, be secured at the 

 expense of other essential qualities. It is quite 

 easy to make a small, neat head, but not easy 

 to combine this with firmness and durability. 

 That is why it is so important that every turn 

 of the silk must be made to tell ; there must 

 be no superfluity ; therefore due importance 

 must be attached to the use of none but fine, 

 strong, and carefully- waxed silk fine, because 

 it " grips " so very much better than stout silk, 

 strong for obvious reasons, and carefully waoced, 

 because one turn of carefully waxed silk is of 

 more use than ten turns of badly waxed silk. 



I make no excuse for this digression, because 

 the points therein touched upon are of some 

 considerable practical importance. 



To resume. Hitch the silk between the 

 gut loop and the small portion of bare hook- 



